Windows chooses the best display settings, including screen resolution, refresh rate, and color, based on your monitor. These settings differ depending on whether you have an LCD or a CRT monitor. If you want to adjust your display settings, or if these settings were changed and you want to restore default settings, use the following recommendations.

LCD monitors, also called flat-panel displays, have largely replaced CRT monitors. They are far lighter and thinner than bulky CRT monitors, which contain heavy glass tubes. LCD monitors also come in a wider range of shapes and sizes, which include widescreen screens and standard-width screens, with ratios of 16:9 or 16:10 width-to-height for widescreen models and 4:3 for standard-width models. Laptops also use flat-panel displays.

LCD monitors are much slimmer and lighter than older-style CRT monitors.

For both LCD and CRT monitors, it's typical that the higher the dots per inch (DPI) you set to display on your screen, the better the fonts will look. When you increase the DPI, you are increasing the screen resolution. The resolution you use depends on the resolutions your monitor supports. At higher resolutions, such as 1900 x 1200 pixels, items appear sharper. They also appear smaller, so more items fit on the screen. At lower resolutions, such as 800 x 600 pixels, fewer items fit on the screen, but they are larger.

The best display settings for an LCD monitor

If you have an LCD monitor, check your screen resolution. This helps to determine the clarity of on-screen images. It's a good practice to set an LCD monitor to its native resolution—the resolution a monitor was designed to display based on its size.
To see your monitor's native resolution, check the display settings in Control Panel.

Open Screen Resolution by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, and then, under Appearance and Personalization, clicking Adjust screen resolution.

Click the drop-down list next to Resolution. Check for the resolution marked (recommended). This is your LCD monitor's native resolution—usually the highest resolution your monitor can support.

The monitor's manufacturer or reseller should also be able to tell you the native resolution for your LCD monitor. (CRT monitors don't have a native resolution.)

Screen Resolution in Control Panel shows the recommended resolution for your monitor.

An LCD monitor running at its native resolution usually displays text better than a CRT monitor. LCD monitors can technically support lower resolutions than their native resolution, but text won't look as sharp and the image might be small, centered on the screen, edged with black, or look stretched. For more information, see Change your screen resolution.

Because stand-alone monitors are usually larger than laptop screens, they typically support higher resolutions than laptops.

Set the color for an LCD monitor

To get the best color displayed on your LCD monitor, make sure to set it to 32-bit color. This measurement refers to color depth, which is the number of color values that can be assigned to a single pixel in an image. Color depth can range from 1 bit (black-and-white) to 32 bits (over 16.7 million colors).
For more information, see Change color management settings.

Open Screen Resolution by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, and then, under Appearance and Personalization, clicking Adjust screen resolution.

The best display settings for a CRT monitor

For a CRT monitor, it's important to change the screen resolution to the highest resolution available that provides 32-bit color and at least a 72-Hertz refresh rate. For more information, see Change your screen resolution.

If the screen is flickering, or viewing the screen is uncomfortable, increase the refresh rate until you are comfortable with it. The higher the refresh rate, the less likely there will be any noticeable flicker. (Because LCD monitors don't create flicker, they don't need to be set at high refresh rates.) For more information, see Correct monitor flicker (refresh rate).

Resolution based on CRT monitor size

Monitor size

Recommended resolution (in pixels)

Monitor size

15-inch CRT monitor

Recommended resolution (in pixels)

1024 × 768

Monitor size

17- to 19-inch CRT monitor

Recommended resolution (in pixels)

1280 × 1024

Monitor size

20-inch and larger CRT monitor

Recommended resolution (in pixels)

1600 × 1200

Note

Unlike LCD monitors, CRT monitors generally don't come in widescreen sizes. Almost all have a standard 4:3 screen ratio, with resolutions in the same 4:3 ratio of width to height.

Set the color for a CRT monitor

Windows colors and themes work best when you have your monitor set to 32-bit color. You can set your monitor to 24-bit color, but you won't see all the visual effects. If you set your monitor to 16-bit color, images that should be smooth might not appear correctly.

Open Screen Resolution by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, and then, under Appearance and Personalization, clicking Adjust screen resolution.

Click Advanced settings, and then click the Monitor tab.

Under Colors, select True Color (32 bit), and then click OK. (If you can't select 32-bit color, check that your resolution is as high as possible, and then try again.)

Display calibration software helps to make sure that colors are displayed accurately on your screen. If you already have display calibration software from another software provider installed on your computer, you can use that software to calibrate your display. Display calibration devices are often packaged with calibration software. Using a calibration device with the calibration software it came with can help you get the best color on your screen.

Windows also includes a feature for calibrating your display. For more information, see Calibrate your display.

For external displays, brightness and contrast are set on the monitor controls, not from within Windows. Most CRT and LCD monitors have buttons or other controls on the front where you can control brightness and contrast. Some open an on-screen menu where you can make these adjustments. If you're unsure of how to adjust these controls, check the manual for your monitor or the manufacturer's website. For more information, see Adjust your monitor's brightness and contrast.

Windows includes a technology called ClearType that is turned on by default. ClearType allows your monitor to display computer fonts as clear and smooth as possible. This can help make text easier to read over long periods of time without causing eyestrain. It works especially well with LCD devices, including flat-panel displays, laptops, and smaller handheld devices.

It's a good idea to make sure ClearType was not turned off for some reason, especially if the text on your monitor looks fuzzy. You can also set up ClearType to work best with your particular monitor. For instructions on how to do both of these tasks, see Make text easier to read using ClearType.

In this page

Windows chooses the best display settings, including screen resolution, refresh rate, and color, based on your monitor. These settings differ depending on whether you have an LCD or a CRT monitor. If you want to adjust your display settings or, if these settings were changed and you want to restore default settings, use the following recommendations.

The best display for an LCD monitor

If you have an LCD monitor, check your screen resolution, which helps to determine the clarity of on-screen images and objects. It's a good practice to set LCD monitors to the native resolution—the resolution a monitor was designed to display best, based on its size.
The monitor manufacturer or reseller should be able to provide the native resolution. If you can't get this information, you can try setting the monitor to the highest available resolution, which is usually the native resolution. See Change screen resolution.

If you don't know what your monitor's native resolution is, set it to the highest possible resolution

LCD monitors can technically support lower resolutions than their native resolution, but the image might be small, centered on the screen, and edged with black; or the image will look stretched.

Correct monitor flicker

Another consideration in getting the best possible display from your monitor is the screen refresh rate. If the refresh rate is too low, the monitor can flicker, which can cause eye strain and headaches. You should select a refresh rate of at least 75 Hertz. For more information about reducing or eliminating flicker, see Correct monitor flicker (refresh rate).

Make sure the screen refresh rate is high enough to prevent monitor flicker

The best display for a CRT monitor

For a CRT monitor, it's important to change the screen resolution to the highest resolution available that gives 32-bit color and at least a 72-Hertz refresh rate. For more information, see Change screen resolution. If the screen is flickering, or viewing the screen is uncomfortable, increase the refresh rate until you are comfortable with it. For more information, see Correct monitor flicker (refresh rate).

Set the color for a CRT monitor

Windows colors and themes work best when you have your monitor set to 32-bit color. You can set your monitor to 24-bit color, but you won't see all the visual effects. If you set your monitor to 16-bit color, images that should be smooth might not appear correctly.

Set the color for a CRT monitor

Open Display Settings by clicking the Start button , clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, clicking Personalization, and then clicking Display Settings.

Under Colors, select Highest (32 bit), and then click OK. (If you can't select 32 bit, check that your resolution is as high as possible, and then try again.)